Amos 8

Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity

1This is what the Lord 1God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2And He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And 2I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The 3end has come for My people Israel. I will not 45spare them any longer. 36The 7songs of the palace will turn to 8wailing on that day,” declares the Lord God. “The 9corpses will be many; in every place 10they will throw them out. 11Hush!”

4Hear this, you who 1213trample the needy, to put an end to the humble of the land, 5saying, “When will the 14new moon 15be over, So that we may sell grain; And the 16Sabbath, so that we may open the wheat market, To make the 17ephah smaller and the 18shekel bigger, And to 19cheat with dishonest scales,6So as to 20buy the helpless for 21money, And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”

7The Lord has 22sworn by the 23pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will 24never forget any of their deeds.8Because of this will the land not 25quake, And everyone who lives in it 26mourn? Indeed, all of it will 27rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt.9And it will come about on that day,” declares the Lord God, “That I will make the 28sun go down at noon, And 29make the earth dark in 30broad daylight.10Then I will 31turn your festivals into mourning, And all your songs into songs of mourning; And I will put 32sackcloth around everyone’s waist, And 33baldness on every head. And I will make it 34like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

11“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, But rather 35for hearing the words of the Lord.12People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will roam about to 36seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.13On that day the beautiful 37virgins And the young men will 38faint from thirst.14As for those who swear by the 3940guilt of Samaria, And say, ‘As your god lives, 41Dan,’ And, ‘As the way of 42Beersheba lives,’ They will fall and 43not rise again.”